Who knows better what young readers want than another young reader? Christopher Paolini goes to show that he certainly knows–his Inheritance cycle, consisting of Eragon, Eldest, and Brisinger, with a final installment in the works, has captured the imaginations of children, young adults, and adults too, all over the world.

The home-schooled son of parents who owned a small publishing business in rural Montana, Christopher Paolini found himself with time on his hands after graduating from high school when he was 15, and with a novel that he had begun the year before. He spent a year writing Eragon, his parents published it,  bestselling writer Carl Hiasson’s stepson read it and loved it, and suddenly Christopher was a Knopf author, published by Random House in the U.S. and the U.K.

A voracious bibliophile and devotee of libraries, Christopher was a reluctant reader as a child, and credits his mother for enticing him to love the printed word. Certainly she must be proud that her encouragement not only made her son a lover of books, but a writer whose goal was to write a book that other 15-year-olds would want to read.

He certainly has accomplished that–his first two books have sold over 15.5 million copies and are in print in 50 languages–a testimony to youthful talent and to parents who stressed the joy of reading!

Posted by: Janet | This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 9:31 pm and is filed under Reading the World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Tags: Brisingr, Carl Hiassen, Children's Books, Christopher Paolini, Eldest, Eragon, homeschool, Inheritance cycle, libraries, reluctant readers, Young Adult Books